Son of the soil

TRAIL BLAZER/ WHO DARES WINS

His roots go back to a Goan family of freedom fighters, but few can guess that Ashank Desai who's today the chairman of Mastek Ltd, a software services company, has actually squatted on floors and studied with the Adivasis. He lost his father at an early age and his mother supported the family. In 1961, when Goa got liberated, little changed; he studied with a lantern and his fun was restricted to music for which he relied on his neighbour, who had a radio. Turning point was when he joined engineering college in Goa and did well. Got a scholarship for M tech at IIT, and joined Godrej as a design engineer. The company sponsored him to IIM, Ahmedabad.

It was at IIM that I made friends with "� R. Sundar and Ketan Mehta "� and we jointly began the task of building Mastek in 1982. My mother was against it, but I was more adventurous. First six years were a grind, starting off with Rs 5,000 and the phone number of a jeweller across the street. We considered closing down many times. It was ironic: Here we were IIM graduates barely eking out a living, while others who had graduated with us, were flying.

We began exports in 1989, and it was tough to break in then. We then shifted to a 50-sq ft office at Nariman Point. Our big break came with an order from Singapore for IBM 36 machine software. We had not even seen one! So, we trained seven people and sent them to Singapore, who did an excellent job...there's been no looking back since.

We when public in 1992, and were the first IT company (see box) to offer shares at a premium. It was a harrowing time. On the day the issue was to close, a bandh was declared. However, our fears were unfounded: the issue was oversubscribed.

I have tried to make our organisation, multicultural. In every country where we have a subsidiary, a local is taken in as CEO. Building market cap for the promoters is not our aim, we truly wants to build an enduring organisation with high corporate governance with good people.

Interestingly, has the relationship of all those who started Mastek, survived? Yes! As individuals we are different: Our strengths, styles, outlook and time horizons are all different. What is common, is our values, which bind us together. We trust each other and do not second-guess the other.

Building blocks

Mastek is an international software solutions company which designs and develops high impact applications that sustain and grow business. With a turnover of Rs 701 crore (March 2006), over 3400 employees, Mastek has consistently delivering large scale, 'ground breaking' IT projects.

It has eight subsidiaries across Asia, Europe and the U.S. It's ISO 9001:2000 certified and assessed at SEI SW-CMM Level 5 and SEI P-CMM Level 3.

It has many firsts to its credit: It's among the first in India to create software products (1982). First to introduce RDBMS (1989), first to develop ERP (1992). First IT company to offer ESOPs (1993). Among first to venture into CRM services globally (1997). First IT solutions company in the world to be assessed at P-CMM Level 3 (2000). Among the first to be chosen by Microsoft to beta .NET. Successful partnerships by Mastek include Joint Venture with Deloitte Consulting, JV with Carrekar Corporation, JV with Capita, JV with BT and finally JV with Euriware a consulting and IT services group in France.

Meanwhile, Ashank Desai is part of the founding team of NASSCOM, served as chairman in 1996-97. A committee member of SEB of Software Technology Parks of India, Desai is also chairman, Western Regional Council of Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, and a special invitee to the managing committee of Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Desai has been the VP of Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation. And is the only Indian to be presented with the Honourable Contribu-tors Award twice - in 1994 & 2004 - for making outstanding contributions to its growth.

He has been invited by the Commonwealth Business Council to be a part of the six-member global team of Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC). The ZIBAC team is asked to provide assistance and advice to the President of Zambia, Mr. Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, on best practices for attracting foreign investment to Zambia.